PvP armor! :D

Some of my best solo builds I run with 15str

So, how about ANet improves the current Rogue sets? They said people with Chapter 1 would not get discreminated from people with chapter 2, yet Chapter 2 offers far more interesting Armour sets. At least Eles have their Energy Storage, so -4 Energy doesn't hit them as hard as it hits the mesmers.
All I see when I look at that set of armour is "Wow, Anet really hates mesmers and wants people to play Ele instead".
Vest + Pants + other gloves and boots = 28 En base, equal to a warrior with full Gladiator's armour, but the warrior has 80 AL and +20 vs Physical, while the mesmer has 60AL and + 10 vs Physical, and only if hit on the chest or pants (still a 37.5% chance to get hit elsewhere, so not even global). They do have +2 more energy regen, but it's still bad for energy.
It's probably the worst armour set in the game, well safe from the Knights/Ascalon "1 piece = global" sets...

Also, the look of the armor is a matter of taste, some people like it, and if it's FoW armor, it all looks alike. 1.5 set is ugly, 15k set looks better IMHO. I still didn't buy it because -4 Energy = bad for Mesmer.

can we use this armor atm?

Uhm you got an entire attribute and several skills dedicated to energy and its management.

Sure. But wouldn't the extra health or energy be better for a solo build than 100 armor all the time (not to mention, Glads and Beserk still give you 100 armor against Physical).

And it's still not enough to make Eles useful.

So true. I can't wait to get the Sentinels Armor.

The +HP armor is godly, it give an option for 1 superior and 1 major or 2 superior with less defect than ever. And, if one face spike build, one can simply take off one of those rune in the heat of battle.

Seems to me that a build involving or based on Mantras is getting a little encouragement here. I understand that Distortion is the mesmer stance of choice, but when using Distortion, the point is to be evading the hits altogether, and who cares about the armor at that point. Seeing as how little-used many of the Mantras are outside of Persistence and Concentration, it may be an attempt at an indirect buff of all those forgotten skills

Interesting Point. Physical Resistance becomes much more useful now:

With the armor, you'll get net +50 physical, and only lose -4 armor against elemental (when maxed).

Will Charlatan's or Savant's be better for IW users? (and no, it's not as simple as it seems: IW can't be kept up all the time, and Stance armor could be a decent backup).

Anyone cares to post the new helmets, or aren't there any?

No, Physical Resistance isn't worth it with or without. Evade is infinitely better than +armor.

The only one I've seen is the Berserker Helmet, which has Strength +1. Not terribly interesting.

SENTINEL..wow thank you for the update....pretty nice CANT WAIT >.<

You might want to rethink that. in some areas, all the monsters use are evasion stance avoiding attacks. EG: Armoured Cave Spiders keep spamming Called Shot, which cannot be evaded or blocked.

I'm only referring to PvE though. PvP might be a whole other can of worms altogether.

Eh, I don't mind, I wouldn't touch +energy elementalist armor with those other options available. Elementalists are the profession that benefits the least from that armor mod due to Energy Storage.


Oh, I am absolutely, 100% in favor of them going back through chapter 1 armors and buffing them up to be comparable to the current and new options. The current armors aren't balanced well at all, and since the new armors are all balanced around the top-notch existing ones they could go back and buff up the old armors without any complaints. Pretty much everything except the energy armors and Tormentor's could use a buff at this point.


It's 26 energy base actually, with the gloves and boots. I don't think you should even compare it to Gladiator's though because of the extra two pips, which are huge. Energy regeneration is like 10x more important than max energy. It's pretty useful on mesmers with cheap spells, signets, and not a lot of active energy management. Still I don't think that anyone would complain if it lost the -energy part of the effect and got to mirror battlemage's.

Clearly they didn't want to hold themselves hostage to the chapter 1 armors, because a lot of those were just poor. I think it's definitely the right call, the future chapters should be balanced even if the original wasn't. They can't keep making bad armors that no one uses over tattoos just because they did in the past, after all.


In PvP, sure, because so much of the threat coming in is armor-ignoring. In PvE though +armor can be really good, the damage pretty consistent instead of spikey and armor is a lot cheaper than block/evades, with a better uptime.

Peace,
-CxE

Is that true? (specifically, the gloves)

Setnals Armor is perfect For Farming! For ex, any good farmer would have Dolyak Sig, ad high strenth so it can last long, WooT, 140 armor

Everybody bashing the elementalist armor needs to realize that with the ritualist, AoE damage will be more and more important in PvP. Expect the elementalist to go on the rise.

*edit* Lady Callingwell is DEAD wrong. Bonuses only apply to the piece of armor it is on.
As such, I always get the +armor chestpiece since 37.5% of attacks land there anyway and +energy everything else.

AoE damage will be important for a few minutes at most, before most of the Ritualists learn not to clump the things together.

Lady Callingwell is also right about the Performer's and Knight's armors. They apply globally for now.

Sentinel's for farming / tanking, that's pretty much what it's for. Hydras beware!

In PVP I could see a Worrier at least using the chest piece (if he's got 13 str) to absorb elemental spikes, which if memory serves (at least for lightning) have 25% AP and always strike the chest area. +15 health /80 armor against a lightning spike would be nothing compared to 100 armor. The health advantage would be gone after the first couple hits, and it would be downhill from there. Of course, 15 health could be a make-or-break against degen builds. It all depends on what you're facing.

Look what I just found!

Is it just me or does that Elementalist's face look slightly flat. =/

Also, I think thats the Tempest Armour ^^

Wow.. 100 AL, -20 when Strength is less than 13..?!?!
Very interesting.. Currently, running strength greater than or equal to 13 is rare.
I like the Berserker's armor for the time being. (+35 Health)

As far as PvE is concerned, new mesmer armor is for looks only.

There's no reason to be hit in PvE, I've never noticed a diff with virt pieces because I simply don't get hit enough. +10 armor while staying permanently enchanted... maybe if there are new enchants available, +10 while in stance with MoR perhaps. Problem is, you should be staying back in the first place. The +hp isn't as good as the +energy as well.

Meh, just as well I have enchanter FoW.

agreed. except the whole fow deal. i'd rather stick to the plus energy

i like sentinels armor i dont care if i have to have 13 strength all that extra armor will make up for it

Now I'm a bit sad I got FoW armor since the new ones give +1 energy regen.

That is such a damn tease! This good advertising makes me want to go beat up old people!>_<

In general, I never much liked warrior's armor. The sentinals armor I saw here on a thread before, and that's what I'm gettin'! Don't care bout needing 13 strength, or the batman helmet(I like my shiny bald head better'n any damn helmet!)

Wow, a few new non-promiscuous options for female elementalists. At least in terms of chestwear.

Male necros will still look like putrid ass, though. Poor guys.


(Edited for word choice, 'cuz the red engine going looked kinda silly in that sentence.)

You forget to take into account the fact that no warrior in there right mind would go without at least 1 piece of ascalon or knights armor for the -2 damage reduction. That's 5 less hit points from the Berserker Armor and no less hit points from the +30 HP weapon pommel. So they are equal, in that respect, but Platemail can choose a defense pommel over a fortitude pommel (which we all know is better anyway) and end up with 90 base armor. GG Berserker's armor.

Well not really. Berserker's Armor is still good. But in a different way. It loses in the argument you were trying to make though.

We don't know what the helms are yet, so there may be a -2 helm to replace Ascalon's. Though not sure if we'd see -2 damage and +5 health on the same piece of armor, but it's possible.

+10 armor while enchanted

boon prot's dream?

Isn't there a sentinel helmet? I'm definitely getting it! the sentinel set is awesome, guess I'll have to work around that 13str

Very nice armor, I can't wait to get 3 new sets for my ele .. that being said wearing "Tempest" armor on my character named Eternal Tempest is going to be a bit weird...

I keep one of each stat type with me at all times, but this is going to become a pain by chapter 3..

I have not doubt there will be "FOW" like versions of these as well and 15k versions of them too.

Now that I think about it, Legionnaires might be the best considering I love the way the sentinels loook.

80ar + 10more while in stance(aren't we all?) +20more vs physical means that its 110ar vs physical and 90 vs all compared to 100 ar vs all w/ sentinel, all w/o the req of 13str, seems like a tough predicament for people, I'm pretty sure both pve and pvp warrs all use stance whether its sprint, frenzy, evade stances and mesmer resistance stances. Couple that w/ the fact that most intelligent(those that go for maximum effectiveness) will always go w/ atleast 1 knight or ascalon part to go along w/ the new armor(as evident by that sentinel pic w/ knight boots) sad to say, wish Anet made armors more completely dyeable to make mix and match armor sets more eye pleasing, I can imagine the contrasting colors of each armor ain't gonna bode too well, and dying all to match would make it all more seemless, or you can just go w/ an ascalon helm

I'm thinking of running sentinels w/ ascalon helm, but damn I don't wanna miss out on that bad ass sentinel helmet. Although being a practical man, my brain is telling me to get the legionnaire, I'm always on stance and my atts are often fairly distributed. I got a feeling that sentinel warrs will be running w/ low hps among warrs. Also that 100 armor doesn't really seem alot considering that other armors got +armor bonuses and w/ stances most monsters or people don't really do much dmg to you anyway w/ current armor levels + stances, so is 100ar VS all really that practical?

I'm gonna hold out on getting armor early on and just wait on people to have done their homework. Although given the choice, I wish they switch the Legionnaire and Sentinel skins That'd make my decision easier.

I better start saving up my steel iron and probly even deldrimor steel Although I think that armor might be elonian leather square, or a bunch or mats that haven't been used till now. I hope there will be 15k versions of each other. ATM, berserkers look like a modified glad armor.

I can imagine most nubs will be running around w/ fellblades/sephis/chaos axe w/ shadow shields... heck I might be one of em cept I run a flamberge which is not so newbish.

Omg That Legionnaire's Armor Is Awsome , Thats Like 110 Armor If You Reach The Conditions

yeah, we should petition them to change leigonnaire with sentinels

Wow.. 5 less HP, I'm dead now...
Platemail is still 10 less armor vs. Physical and only 5 more vs. Elemental. The only real advantage you get from Platemail is 5 Elemental armor over base armor and the downside is 5 less Physical.. and these are the only mods. On the other armors you get it even which some people prefer more physical than elemental anyway plus you get the mods which suit you, +Energy, +Armor (in stance), +Health. For 5 less armor in elemental, I'd take the health or energy anyday.

Berserker armor may result in viably being able to tack on another superior or major rune to your warrior...with that being said, I can't see myself using anything other than glads for my hammer warrior, and any other energy based hammer warrior.

First off, Healing Signet warriors are dominant in GvG. 13 stregnth = no healing signet, though I suppose Endure Pain is just as much a viable skill as Healing Signet, although very differant uses.

Most hammer warriors are HEAVILY energybased. You'll usually see Irresistable Blow, Frenzy, Crushing Blow and Bull's Strike/Charge on any given hammer warrior.

+5 Energy (or +6 energy when they fix knight's) for a hammer warrior CAN be very important. Not to mention +1 second to knockdowns is generally more usefull than +1 energy or a 12.5 percent chance of having +20 armor, even if you are only using Bull's Strike/Charge.

Defense on a warrior in GvG... Important, but not top priority. I think the higher offense capabilities of Berserker or Gladiator's armor outweighs the defense from Legion and Sentinal armor.

Ofcoarse, this could all change with the new factions skills, as energy may not be as important to a hammer warrior with the new skills. We can only wait and see.

Anybody notice the barbed/crippling/silencing bow strings, only available to Factions? I wonder if there will be strings only available to Prophecies...

Exactly. I wonder if people actually read their armor descriptions sometimes. Platemail does not have 5 more defense than standard. It has 5 *less* defense against physical, but 5 more against non-physical (elemental with a few exceptions). In a vacuum that's arguably better than the standard, it shores up the weakness even though it makes you worse against your strength (even if what you're strong against, physical damage, is vastly more common than non-physical damage). But looking at the new standard it's clear that platemail doesn't have a bonus, it's about as good as the collector stuff.

You don't see all the PvE warriors running around in platemail because 'it has the best defense'. They're all using Platemail because they're newbies who want to play platemail warriors, because that's the vision of the character they have. All the serious powergamers use Gladiator's armor with Knights or Ascalon boots and there's a reason for it, it's because the chapter 1 armors aren't balanced and that's just the best combination. There are some specialized situations where one might, arguably, want Platemail (say, if you're farming Ice Imps and there's no physical damage at all), but those situations are rare.

Hopefully once chapter 2 comes out we can stop lying to ourselves about how good Platemail is. People use it for the looks, period, and I'm pretty sure most of the defense of the set comes from people using it for the looks who don't want to feel bad about using an awful armor set. Get over it, I use 15k Wanderers on my PvE monk, despite it being one of the weakest sets in the game, because it's hot and PvE doesn't matter. Just admit your priorities and move on.

---

So assuming the chapter 1 armors don't get rebalanced we have, realistically, 4 choices for warrior armor - Gladiator's, Berserker's, Legionnaire's, and Sentinel's (along with Knight's or Ascalon boots until those get fixed). Of those 4 I only see Gladiator's and Berserker's being used in PvP. Warriors do not get beat on with any regularity because they're such a pain to kill, and a few more armor points here or there isn't going to change that in any way favorable. When warriors do get threatened outside of garbage time it's usually a spike, or at least heavily focused pressure, with a significant armor ignoring component - either that or it's a team responding to Frenzy abuse but again it's largely armor ignoring damage that chases you off. At least in PvP the value of additional armor for a warrior is pretty marginal because of this, while extra HP are still valuable as they help with the armor-ignoring stuff that is dangerous. Extra energy is of course always useful.

PvE allows for a wider variety of armors on a warrior because armor starts to matter. The warrior gets a lot of aggro and should be taking more damage than anyone so +armor becomes extremely valuable (such as on weapon pommels). Legionnaire's looks like it'd be the PvE armor of choice. Most warriors carry an assortment of stances in PvE so they'll get a lot of milage out of the extra armor bonus.

Sentinel's is very likely to be the most popular armor choice, replacing Platemail. It really isn't anything special though. 100 AL vs. physical is the standard for all warrior armors, so the only thing this does that's special is +20 AL vs non-physical damage. If you're going to be flashing stances is that any better than Legionnaire's on its own? Only debatably, but it'd potentially have it's place. The Strength req is mostly for show I think, to make it feel more special. I think you're silly if you're pumping Strength just to use this armor. But if you're a PvE toon that happens to have that much Strength, hey, why not. In any case I don't think it has a place in PvP at all. Super-high Strength is very unlikely to be a mainstay in PvP anytime soon, and even if it is +20 AL vs. non-physical just isn't attractive as a mod in PvP. Even if I had 13 Strength for some reason I'd be hard pressed to take this over Gladiator's or Berserker's, as those latter sets will give me bonuses I can actually use.

Peace,
-CxE

Sentinel's Armor! Forget Tactics, go straight Strength and Weapon! Forget Healing Signet, go Defy Pain! w00t

Maybe the new skills will give a healing skill in the strength attribute...??? Like, DragonballZ power up... warrior will stand there and flex and yell and regain hp... yeah... maybe...